Featured Goldtone Locket ~ Intaglio?

Feeling a little brain dead. Need help with keywords for researching please.
It is intaglio, right? I can only think of onyx for the black. Correct?
Only mark I see is patent date...June 5 1877
There is some obvious damage but hoping still some value? It opens/closes fine, for what that's worth.
Thanks much...

 

Beautiful. Yes, it is intaglio. It looks like Hermes. Glass maybe?
I leave the rest up to @Bronwen who will tell you everything you need to know.

 

Glass maybe.....onyx....likely......nice rose gold look....any teeny tiny marks ???

The patents is for what looks like a spyglass enlargement of an interior photo mechanism...

 

Intaglio locket fob, Mercury/Hermes with caduceus.

It is just so hard to tell, especially when the back is covered over, whether an intaglio like this is glass or stone.

If the photos are capturing the color accurately, I see a reddish tinge in places where material is thinner & light gets through. The correct term for stone this color is 'sard', essentially the dark end of the color spectrum for chalcedony that has carnelian/cornelian at the other end. 'Sardonyx' properly applies only to stone with layers of sard & white. Chalcedony that has been dyed black should be called black onyx, since 'onyx' comes from the Greek for 'fingernail'. From the seller's photos, I thought this little Zeus was black onyx. Knew it was likely to be stone because an initial is scratched onto the back. It is sard:



A feature that is by no means a rule but can be a clue is whether the edges where the faces meet the sides are rounded or somewhat sharp. Molded glass tends to be rounded.

The color & cut of your intaglio do not rule out natural stone.

To have a better idea of the value of the piece you will need to know the quality of the metal. A good stone is less likely to turn up in a costume quality setting, but I always caution that quality of setting alone can not be relied on in determining quality of the cameo/intaglio.

Another caution I issue is that patent dates put a floor under estimates of age, not a ceiling on them. Still, would guess the locket was made in the 10-20 years after.

That is certainly the feature that differentiates it from many others. Looks spring loaded? Does it pop up any time the locket is opened or does it have to be released in some way? Is there glass or a lens in it now?

 

Could it be a watch fob? Also, the symbol at the bottom is a Caduceus AKA Rod of Hermes.

http://www.crystalinks.com/caduceus.html

 

Oh, and the fancy term for his cap is petasos. A really fancy term (Greek) for his staff is kerykeion.

 

Great info...so far. Thanks! I just took more pictures, with a loupe over the camera lens and a bright flashlight shining directly on the piece. Help at all?

As for spring loaded mechanism...I think it's a little bent, so does not work as originally intended. Initially, you probably pushed it a little to release (maybe) Now, I kind of put my fingernail under it to lift up a bit. Once released, you can feel the spring. There is no glass currently.

Also, the top portion looks as if it had two little brackets initially but one is broken off. I just noticed that you can see the back of the "black" from where it's broken off. I can try for a picture of that...tomorrow! (if needed) You can see one bracket in 2nd pic above.

Teeny Tiny marks...none so far but it's difficult to maneuver a loupe through all the parts of this. I could have missed it. Will def keep checking.

 

It looks quite black in most of the new batch of pix. A bit of reddishness in the last 2; is it picking up the reflection of something red? If you shine the flashlight at it from the side, does the front look opaque black or deep mahogany?

I'm surprised not to be able to find a match for this one in a database of engraved gems. New photos bring out details I missed before. Figure does not appear to be wearing a cap/petasos. The wings, which are in an unusual upright orientation, seem attached to a band or fillet holding the hair in place. The hair is not overly long for many depictions of male figures, but longer than most versions of Hermes/Mercury, so I see the possibility of another identity. The caduceus is the traditional staff of a herald, carried by Mercury in his role as a messenger. He is not the only messenger employed by the gods. When she is not shown pouring showers out of a jug, Iris too, although if she is given wings they are usually on her back, carries a caduceus.

In all honesty, even if I had the piece in my hand, I could probably not be sure whether it was stone or glass, particularly if it is an opaque black. However, with only photos to go by, my inclination is to think it is stone.

 

Even if you don't show us the result, it would tell you more about the color if you can shine the flashlight (or sunlight) through the opening left by the missing bit & see how the intaglio then looks from the front. If it is revealed as very dark brown rather than black, I would be pushed even farther toward thinking it is stone.

 

I was wondering, is this wear to the gold, revealing a base metal underneath, or is it just the photo? I mean the corner on the left, the edge, and the black lines on the side of the locket:

 

Yes a scroll or a baton, maybe the porta/skeptron.

 

More pic's...

To be honest, I can't tell! Going to clean it a bit to see if that helps...

Thank you again to everyone for helping with this ~ so impressed by your wealth of knowledge, and grateful to you for sharing it!

 

With the recent photos,it looks like the piece is plated mystery metal.

 

Color looks good for sard & sharpness of edges encouraging for stone rather than molded glass.

My guess is that it is the initial I, done in what you could call a woodland style. If it had been an A or a J, we would not be looking for further significance.

This was a jazzy piece when new.